It seems like Obama's pastor problem isn't going away anytime soon.
Obama appeared on Fox News Sunday yesterday, and Hot Air's Ed Morrissey sums it up: "It wasn't a disaster, but it still reveals Obama to be out of touch and hard to the Left. Don't expect this to help in Indiana."
The most talked-about soundbyte from the show is Obama's admitting that Rev. Wright is a "legitimate political issue." After denouncing the NC GOP's attack ad featuring Wright, McCain seems to have changed his tune as he said after Obama's FNS interview, "I believe that Senator Obama does not share those views. But Senator Obama himself says it's a legitimate political issue so I would imagine that many other people would share that view and it will be in the arena." Politico's Ben Smith explains that "he said, more or less, that he didn't plan to attack Obama on Wright, but that Obama--by calling the question 'legitimate'--had legitimized it." As NRO's Jim Geraghty says, "Apparently the Obama campaign expected John McCain to argue with Obama that his relationship with Wright wasn't a legitimate issue." And this is unfortunate timing for Obama: Wright provided more outrageous comments while speaking to the NAACP last night (and surely will provide more after his speech at the National Press Club this morning).
The Corner's Byron York says simply, "Wright is a continuing disaster for Obama." At Contentions, Jennifer Rubin explains why: "Wright seems to be on a speaking tour designed to test the endurance of Democratic primary voters for deeply offensive rhetoric about America, whites, Israel, Italians, and numerous other topics."
And bloggers think that the latest from Wright will certainly hurt Obama. As Marc Ambinder put it, Wright "seems not to care about Barack Obama's politics or aspirations anymore." Hugh Hewitt says, "With a week of wall-to-wall Wright ahead, it is hard to see how Obama wins Indiana, a near home-field loss which would be yet another hammer blow to the collective consciousness of the super-delegates." And Hot Air's Ed Morrissey concludes, "Wright spent his time talking about differences; McCain can now start talking about what we all have in common. While Obama's pastor reminds everyone that his Trinity United years, with Obama in attendance, focused on neurological buncombe to divide blacks and whites, McCain can unite Americans based on the American concepts of freedom and liberty."
